


Fire

by MKZ4345



Series: IPRE: Twins [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Spoilers for Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-08 00:27:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MKZ4345/pseuds/MKZ4345
Summary: This planet had seemed fine. Comparatively, it was paradise. But it hid a civilization that had... Strange values. We don't really get to learn much about them in this story. It's not about them. Just know that they thought killing the people on the flying ship was going to get them into heaven. They also thought that the people on the ship knew this, and were going to be happy to be killed for this purpose. They were wrong.





	Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of my new IPRE Twins series. I always end up writing dramatic stuff, so here's some dramatic stuff. I'm hoping to cut back on that and write something less dramatic. I actually have a much longer fic I'm working on that's going pretty well and succeeding in being less dramatic and even funny at times. Will post that one day... But for now, drama! Death! Pain!
> 
> As always, check my profile bio for the most current update on my writing, fic progress, and life updates!

They were a few cycles in, and everyone was pretty sure the next planar system would be less stressful. Nothing could be more stressful than a planet just filled to the brim with animals who scream for no reason. It had been a while since anyone had died, too. The most recent death was five cycles ago, it was Magnus who had died saving everyone else. They were still building relationships, they still didn’t know everyone else very well. Davenport was still stern, stoic, and worried about the mission. Lucretia was still shy, withdrawn, and quiet. Magnus was forever reckless and got angry too easily. Merle was like a father for a while, then became the weird uncle you only talk to when you have to. Barry was a conundrum to everyone, since he didn’t talk too often but when he did it was always something strange, at least to everyone on the ship. And if Barry was a conundrum, Lup and Taako were enigmas wrapped in confusion topped with worrying recklessness. Lup liked to practice her spells on dinner, setting fire to almost everything and screaming of her success. Taako, for the first few cycles, tried to cast Charm Person on Davenport, only to realize that his wisdom far surpassed his charisma. 

Merle had tried to spark up a conversation over dinner once, asking Lup and Taako what they did before the IPRE. Their responses, at the same time, were “Taxidermy” and “Prostitution.” Then, after looking blankly at each other for a moment, they both answered in unison, “Prostitute Taxidermy.”

No one asked them about it again for a long time.

But today, after finally letting their ears hear silence instead of animals screaming, they reached the next planar system safely out of the reach of the Hunger. A sigh of relief sounded as they entered the system and there was just sweet tranquility of silence.

By this point, everyone was getting better acquainted. Davenport smiled more, Merle told stories at dinner, Barry told jokes that were actually funny and that weren’t about death or zombies, Lucretia was offering to help with things, Magnus was beginning to listen instead of talk, and Lup and Taako were… The same. Not much more had been gleaned from them, other than the “prostitute taxidermy” was not, in fact, true. Not shocking. But they remained secretive. They slept in the same room, ate breakfast earlier than everyone else, spent their time by themselves, and only offered clipped replies to questions or comments, even if they were compliments on the food. The twins stayed the same.

On the deck of the Starblaster, with the wind gently blowing, Lup and Taako stood, arm in arm, talking about their journey so far. Barry and Magnus had joined them on the deck, yet not in their conversation.

Taako laughed at something Lup had said, doubled over, and ended up braced against the railing of the deck, catching his breath. Lup, ever theatrical, laughed heartily at his reaction, and waved a dramatic hand and said something else funny. Barry couldn’t hear them from where he was, and neither could Magnus.

“Did you know them before the mission assignment?” Magnus asked Barry, eying the twins.

“No,” Barry said, shaking his head. “I met Lup in training once, but she kicked my ass and moved on.”

“They were in training?”

“Everyone gets a basic training for unknown missions like these.” Barry looked over to the twins too, watching them as they began to wrestle with each other. He looks back to Magnus and asks, “Did you?”

“No,” Magnus’ answer is less believable to Barry for some reason.

Barry eyes Magnus, questioning in silence. Magnus stare back at him, blank and daring him to ask.

Then, a gasp comes from the other side of the deck, and they look too late. Barry sees Lup first, her hands clasped over her mouth, eyes wide in horror. Then, Taako, who- who has something through his chest. Shot right through him, on a tether, a harpoon of some sort. Blood flies form his mouth as he tries to fall forward, but then is violently pulled backwards and off the deck.

“Taako!” Lup yells, her voice shrill and scared. She runs to the railing, reaching out a hand, screaming for her brother as she watches him fall, limp and dead.

Barry rushes to her, pulling her away from the side and into the ship. Magnus stays on the deck for only a moment longer, surveying where the shot most likely came from, then rushing inside as well.

Lup is screaming, fighting Barry’s grip, crying. Barry is shouting for Davenport, repeating the code for a death of a crew member. Magnus is already at the navigation computers, marking the location of the most likely area that the shot came from.

Later, after Lup’s crying and screaming subsides enough for her to hear anything else, Davenport grills them and comes up with a plan.

“We still have a few days before the Light shows up, and if Magnus is right about the location of the shot, we may be able to at least recover Taako’s body and find whoever did this.” Davenport is back to being stoic. Everyone agrees it’s for the best, seeing as Lup’s resolve is still wobbly. “Magnus, Barry, and Lup will head this mission. We will remain on the ship to provide backup if you need it, and monitor any other hostile activity. Magnus, you are the head of this mission.”

“Yes, sir.” Magnus’ voice is weighed carefully as well.

Magnus offers a plan, Barry fine-tunes it, Lup composes herself. Lucretia scribbles in her journal furiously and silently. Davenport gives their plan the go-ahead, and they are off to prepare. 

Magnus gathers supplies, makes a small map of the area from the radar, and goes to the control room to wait for Barry and Lup. Barry gathers equipment for them all, things like potions of invisibility and extra charges for spells, and meets with Magnus in the control room. Lup takes longer than she needs to, washing her face and shoving her emotions deep into her chest and her thoughts to the back of her mind. She puts her cloak on, securing it tightly, and meets the others in the control room as well.

After quickly going over the plan again, they all suit up and make their way to the deck again. Magnus tries to get them to be cautious, but Lup taking a running dive off the side of the ship, making Barry’s stomach drop and Magnus sigh and jump after her.

They’re falling, and Lup is carefully adjusting her angle, carefully edging to the left, then back to the right to correct. She uses her cloak to slow herself down, letting a small section catch the wind as she falls closer and closer to the planet below.

Barry tries not to throw up as he follows them, keeping his focus on Lup and Magnus instead of looking at the planet he is now plummeting toward.

Magnus does generally the same, but keeps pointed downward instead of slowing down. He aims for a clearing in the forest below them, takes out a small wand and fires off two shots at Lup and Barry, then one at himself, and they all begin to slow down.

Lup hits the ground first, making sure to bend her knees and tuck to roll, and though she catches a branch on the way, she is generally unscathed.

Magnus hits next, making an almost perfect landing and instantly surveying the area around them.

Barry gets to them last, landing less gracefully than Lup and less professionally than Magnus, but ending up on his feet nonetheless.

Together, they try to make their way quietly through the forest, trying to make sure they won’t be found, but Lup’s increasingly angry footfalls give them away, and soon they can hear people shouting in a language foreign to them.

“Lup,” Barry whispers angrily. “Come over here and hide!”

Lup ignores him, walking toward the voices, face determined. Magnus follows her, giving up the stealth they never had, and pulls Barry along.

In a clearing near the one they landed in, a group of native beings are waiting for them. One is tall, has long, vibrant red hair, and is wearing what is clearly Taako’s jacket-cloak (Taako had sewn them together, insisting it looked cooler this way).

Lup’s instant rage is apparent, the soles of her shoes lighting on fire, along with her hands. She clenches her fists and glares daggers at the tall one.

They are immediately scared, most of the people there jumping back in terror as they watch this woman catch fire. The tall one steps back only slightly, seeming to watch her curiously.

“Where is he?!” Lup shouts, steam streaming from her mouth.

The group collectively flinches, and the tall one steps forward slightly, as if he understands the question and thinks it’s directed at him. He reaches out a tentative hand.

Lup audibly growls, sending chills down even Magnus’ spine. She stomps toward him, forcefully grabbing his arm and pulling him closer to her, looking intently at his stolen clothing.

“This isn’t yours, is it?” She asks, her eyes burning with malice.

The tall one shakes his head, but smiles as if this is a good thing.

“You took it from him.”

The tall one nods, happier still.

“You killed him.”

He nods again, elated that she understands.

“I’m going to fucking murder you.”

He stops, and only has a moment to process what she’s said before he’s completely engulfed in flames.

The people behind him scream and run, leaving their seeming leader to die at the hands of this strange and scary woman from the sky.

Lup screams, shouts, tears at his body, and rips the jacloak (Taako, you can’t name it that, that’s awful) from his torso, now detached from the rest of his charred body parts.

Magnus watches with distaste, but watches all the same. Barry can’t look, he can’t bring himself to.

Soon, when the screaming is hoarse and cut short with sobs, and when the sky darkens with rain clouds, the clearing falls silent. Magnus has his arms folded, watching Lup’s trembling, slumped over body. Barry finally looks, and is strangely relieved that the man is now just piles of ash. 

Lup clutches Taako’s burned clothes to her chest, suddenly wailing again. Her voice is worse now, she’s close to losing it from screaming. Her tears are ever flowing.  
Barry would move to console her, but the rain sizzles as it falls on her. Magnus stays still, not knowing what to do but knowing that if he does much more than speak she might be set off again.

And Magnus almost speaks, but is cut off by another howling wail from Lup, who seems to be having a second wind.

Both Barry and Magnus realize too late what she’s doing, and are too far away to stop her before she engulfs herself in the same flames of pain, anger, and sorrow. All the other two can do is watch, horrified, as she burns herself alive, even as the rain begins to come down in sheets.

Soon, it’s painfully quiet. The kind of quiet that shouldn’t exist, especially when it’s raining so hard. But Lup’s screaming had almost completely drowned out the sound until now. Magnus turns away, pulling Barry to do the same. Barry catches a glimpse as he gets pulled away, and what he sees will forever haunt his memory. Lup’s body, on her knees, holding Taako’s now nonexistent clothes as if she were holding him, frozen in a pose of screaming at the sky. All of her body is charred, all the way through. Barry gets the idea that if a stiff wind were to blow, she would blow away in ashes. And she does.

Back on the Starblaster, the team regroups. Davenport can hardly believe the news, Lucretia breaks down into tears on the spot, and Merle is uncharacteristically silent.

Barry realizes this was the first time Taako has died. 

The next year is like hell. Everyone stays on the ship, collectively and silently agreeing to let this world burn when the Hunger comes. And when it does, they flee easily.

When everyone rematerializes where they originally were, Barry can barely open his eyes before he hears Lup’s feverish steps on the deck, sprinting to her brother on the other side.

“Taako!” She shouts, tears already streaming down her face.

“Lup-!” Taako can’t fully respond, his sister slams into him and tackles him to the ground, holding his head tightly to her chest and sobbing into his hair.

The group watches fondly, if wary.

The twins are back together, and Magnus assures that’s all that matters. Lucretia hugs Lup, the first physical contact that she herself has initiated thus far. Davenport nearly cries when he slaps her arm with an angry “don’t ever do that again.” Merle casts Calm Emotion on her which evidently fails, but she laughs it off and thanks him for the effort. Barry, though, remains worried. She had made up her mind the second she had steeled herself, Barry is sure of it. He doesn’t know how to bring it up, so he doesn’t.

The crew of the Starblaster has been made closer for it, though. And eventually, Lup promises it will never happen again. Taako promises the same for his carelessness. They fall back into their patterns, making food and keeping mostly to themselves. But everyone notices that they’re more open to talk now. Taako doesn’t ignore compliments, Lup accepts criticism on her cooking, and everyone takes care to think of them whenever they can. And soon that kindness extends to everyone else. And they form stronger bonds because of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I'm going to be posting more to this series soon, because I already have so much written for it. I hope this wasn't too dramatic and ooc. I much prefer writing shorter things that I can actually finish. (spoken like someone who doesn't have three chapter fics in the works....)  
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Comments are welcome, criticism is welcome (but I am smol and fear rejection), and I'm not entirely sure how a series works but I think you can bookmark it??? If so, do that if you want to be updated about future writings in the series!
> 
> As always, check my profile bio for the most current update on my writing, fic progress, and life updates!


End file.
